Is HealBe a game-changing health device or a crowdfunding fraud?

GoBe, a health monitoring device sold by HealBe on Indiegogo, has yet to show strong science to back up its claims — though it has collected close to $1 million from backers eager to get the product.

Funder beware.

Snake-oil salesmen used to have to pitch their dubious products on late-night infomercials or low-traffic websites. But now, armed with a freelance designer, people pitching products that sound amazing and might work — emphasis on might — can make a crowdfunding page that looks sharp and clean enough to net almost $1 million, without ever shipping a product.

That’s the picture painted by a series of articles from PandoDaily about HealBe, a company that’s hawking a miraculous-sounding device that, when strapped on a user’s wrist, can measure everything from their caloric intake to hydration levels — and which experts say can’t possibly work as advertised.

Pando started looking into the product — which says it’s based in San Francisco but whose makers are in Moscow — several weeks ago. The website found that the company was sketchy on details and claimed to use technology that wouldn’t be feasible. HealBe also promised to share information about patents and other information on how the device works but has not yet done so.

Since then, Indiegogo (which was used presumably because Kickstarter doesn’t allow medical devices and Indiegogo allows users to collect funds raised even if they don’t meet the funding goal) has changed its FAQs to emphasize not all campaigns and contributions go through a fraud review — just the ones flagged by the company’s fraud detection system.

Crowdfunding has always been risky for the funder — those who choose to back projects invest money in a startup that promises to deliver a product down the line, but sometimes the product arrives later than promised, in a different form than as advertised, or not at all. For many funders, that risk is still worth the chance to be in at the ground level on a new product or project they find compelling. But the way it’s set up now, crowdfunding can take advantage of those who are less aware.